Every Planet
by NenkotaMoon
Summary: Short story for the May contest on Aria's Afterlife forum: With the Mass Relays destroyed, many colonies have been cutoff from galactic society. It is the crew of the I.S.V. Kongo to find them.


The Kodiak shuttle broke through the atmosphere and began to descend on the small colony. It came to a small clearing in the center, hovering above it as a door slid open. A large figure, wearing heavy looking armor jumped down to the ground from the shuttle, kneeling down as he recovered from the fall. Another figure in armor came down next, small rocket jets slowing his descent. They raised their weapons to the surrounding area for targets as three more figures came down from the shuttle on cables. When all were safely on the ground, the shuttle closed it doors before making a beeline back to space.

"This ground team to Kongo, Kongo can you read us?"

-*"Loud and clear Foxtrot, we're sending down a tech crew with the transmitter on the next flight."*-

"Understood, can you give us visual from above?"

A crackle came over the comms, -*"No, cloud cover on the planets is interferring with our cameras, you'll have to search around on your own. We do have maps and schematics aquired from Alliance data bases to aide you. They're already downloaded on to the omni-tools hardware."*-

"Understood Captain," the jet packed figure looked to those around him, " Alright, you all heard him, scan the area for survivors."

"Well damn it all. Can't we get one damed planet that isn't a ghost town for once. This is the 36th one in a row," a skinny figure spoke, clutching the Valkyrie assault rifle in hand.

"At least it isn't an irradiated nightmare like last time."

The Krogan, one named Zrat laughed at the Asari K'leana as the squad began to pace their way down what was a main street of the colony, "Wouldn't survive a day on Tuchanka."

Carol, a human decked out in olive and grey armor, looked into a storefront. She peered inside, "Hey everyone, hold up," she said turning to all looked to her as she went to the door. It was locked for a short while before she busted the window with the butt of a Scimatar shotgun, disappearing into the store before coming back with a large crate.

"Is that what I fucking think it is?" asked the male human, Joules.

"Is it dextro safe?"added the Turian Lokern along with the human.

"Both. You know how damn expensive this shit is? This is like a Christmas in July, Hell, they got all kinds of stuff in their. Smokes, booze, they have it in their."

They left the crate at the front of the store, the Asari spraying a bright colored paint on the door to mark it for a return trip. Most of the time, they were used to one of three things. The Reapers had killed everyone on the colony; the planet was irradiated from nukes launched, or it had been evacuated before the Reapers eventually attacked it. After the Mass Relays were destroyed and the Reapers defeated, the need of finding lost and cut-off colonies was a growing market for explorers and independent vessels such as for the crew I.S.V. Kongo.

Every once and awhile they'd stop, clear the building while taking anything of value, then continue on to the next house. It was eireilly quiet, with nothing indicating conflict. The colony, discovered to be named Ghirshovitzville , appeared to have been untouched by sentient beings as well as Reapers. Nature had taken already much of the town in the last five years.

"Kongo, run a search on the colony of Ghirshovitzville, planet X9-3747, and give us a status report on that tech team," spoke Lokern into his mic.

A pause,-*"This is Kent, I'm running a search now. The shuttle just left and should be touching down shortly. Found it, what would you like?"*-

"What happened to the population?" he inquired.

-*I'm going through it now, hold on,"*- he cut out, coming back shortly after,-*"Found something. There is no records or reports of an evacuation, nor one of an attack by Reapers. I'm not sure why you haven't seen anyone. From all things considered, this planet was spared, out of the way."*-

Joules took of his helmet, revealing his long bearded face,"What the Hell, this can't be right. Everything is pitch damn perfect, where the fuck is everyone?"

The squad looked at each other, then to their surroundings. The silence was broken only by Zrat, "We should all get back to the drop zone,"the Krogan said, "We'll figure this out later."

"Yeah, get some bearings here with the transmitter, then figure out what is going on," K'leana holstered her Shuriken Smg, looking towards the drop zone.

"Hey!" shouted Joules out of the blue, turning everyones head to him. The human was walking towards an intersection, before going into a full sprint, yelling as he went.

"What the fuck are you doing Joules, Joules!?"

Lorkern looked to the other members of the squad quickly, "Head back to the LZ. K'leana come with me to chase after whatever the in the Spirits name that idiot is chasing after." They seperated, giving chase to Joules, yelling his name out through the streets. It seemed endless the chase, but they did not see whatever Joules had to make him run like a maniac. They weren't sure if he had seen anything at all. It was then finally they lost track of him.

Thier hearts pounding with adrenaline, they desperately looked around. They surveyed the area around them keeping a vigilant approach with their guns raised. Joules could be heard shuting nearby and the hunt was on again. It felt as if they had gone in cirlces, with little progress what-so-ever.

"Joules get your ass back here right now damn it!" Yelled Lorken.

Comms from the Kongo came in in a fuzzy static,-*"What happened, the Captain is going berserk right now with Joules's stunt."*-

"We have no clue," responded K'leana, " He just bolted away from us."

"When I find Joules I'm gonna make the Blitz look like..." a crash of sorts was heard, prompting the two to freeze in place. The two headed in the noises dirction, heading down a long alleyway. A door to a warehouse was open, marked by what appeared to be claw marks.

"What must have done this," Lorkern inspected before heading in. Only natural came in from windows, making it hard to see inside. There, Joules stood on his knees, blankly staring ahead of him, "There you are you damn... idiot."

"By the Goddess no."

What remained of the town was that of the dead. Lying on the floor were what was the colonists. K'leana backed off, turning to puke in a corner. The bodies were long decayed, a shot to each ones head. Empty vials of sedative and energy cells littered around the room as the body count appeared to be in the forties. A lone corpse sat in a corner, clutching the gun, the tool of this horror, limply in hand. The rotten smell of decay.

It took awhile for Lorken to recover, nearly falling over himself. He looked over K'leana still hunched over, and then to Joules, whom just looked outward with that same blank face. His comms were chirping violently, yet the Turian could not find himself able to answer them. They all had survived the Reaper war. A war of such inescapable horror, yet this, this tomb, was new. Something caught the eye of Lorken just then, right at the back of the room. Painted in haphazrad fashion were the words FEAR THE NIGHT.

"Kong... Kongo we've found Joules. All colonist are long dead. Mass... suicide," Lorken finally answers. K'leana brings Joules out as the three exit the warehouse.

-*"This the Captain speaking. You're to report back to the LZ. The tech crew have just finshed setting the transmittor and are awaiting your return. It is, unfotunate that this such. I'll debrief you all when you return."*-

"Affirmative," Lorken gave a deep breath before slowly exhaling to calm his nerves.

The walk back seemed short, the sun setting giving off an orange glow as they arrived. The il-gotten goods were being placed onto the shuttle now, with Carol and Zrat smoking a fresh cigar. The human and the Krogan conversed over a club on Omega before noticing their fellow squadmates.

"Thirty-seven planets, and only one that survived. It's a damned shame," said Zrart. Smoke billowed from his mouth, "makes Tuchanka look like paradise. Lousy Reaper bastards."

"I guess you could say that every planet we reach is dead right?" Spoke Carol.

"Yeah," Zrat chided, "it looks that way."

End

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed this short story. I do not own Mass Effect, not wish to pursue any profit from it. Mass Effect is property of Bioware and EA, thank you.


End file.
